1 68 EVOL UTION AND NA TURAL THEOL OGY. 



succeeded by others, which although far 

 below the level of their predecessors at 

 the time, are destined ultimately to lead the 

 world up to a higher point of civilisation 

 than it has previously attained. The fall of a 

 highly-civilised but effete nation is really the 

 scattering of the seeds of its civilisation (more 

 or less freed from the vices which formerly ac- 

 companied it) broadcast over the world for 

 the benefit of the future. But for the fall of 

 Greece, Eome, and Judaea, and the consequent 

 dispersion of their traditions and literature, we 

 should not have inherited the arts of the first, 

 the laws of the second, and the monotheism of 

 the third ; and without this foundation the 

 development of our modern Teutonic civili- 

 sation would have been almost impossible. 



Bodily modifications of the structure of man 

 (as of other animals) are not very rapid, but 

 the earliest races of men of which any remains 

 have been preserved, were not only lower than 

 the lowest existing savages, but the shape of the 

 bones and the attachment of the muscles more 

 resembled that which is met with in the Quad- 

 rumana than is usually the case at the present 

 day. Nor has modification even yet ceased in 



